It seems having Lower Trestles in your backyard makes for a good training ground to clinch a world title.
Two San Clemente transplants, Florida’s Caroline Marks and Brazil’s Filipe Toledo, earned the Rip Curl World Surf League Finals world championship Saturday, Sept. 9, after a day of non-stop action at the surf break that’s a stone’s throw from their Orange County homes.
Marks’ win was the first time a mainland surfer has won the championship in 26 years, since fellow Florida surfer Lisa Andersen reigned in the mid-90s. Toledo’s victory continues a five-year dominance by Brazilians. Toledo is also the first-ever back-to-back world champion after his victory at the same spot last year.
“I was in my flow today and had a special day with the ocean,” said an emotional Marks, a 21-year-old surfer who joined the World Tour as a teenage prodigy.
The WSL finals are the culmination of a year-long, world-title race and brings the top-ranked five men and five women.
Surf fans filled into the cobblestone beach throughout the morning, packing the sliver of sand.
Many were decked out in “Griff for Champ” shirts and hats, a rally for Griffin Colapinto, who was raised in the surf town next door to the contest venue. But it wasn’t the hometown surfer’s day.
There was also no shortage of Brazilian fans who erupted in chants with every wave taken by their countrymen Joao Chianca and defending champion Toledo.
Swell from hurricane Jova brought 4- to 6-foot waves to the contest, but it was a slow start for the first 35-minute heat, the ocean going flat for about 15 minutes, with no waves ridden as the clock ticked down.
Oceanside surfer Caitlin Simmers, a 17-year-old rookie who grew up competing at the surf spot just north of her hometown, took the first wave of the day in her heat against Australia’s Molly Picklum with a big turn, but her surfboard dug into the wave, causing her to fall.
Simmers wouldn’t let the stumble rattle her, building on…
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